In the late-sixties, when the hippy ethos was first taking flight, ‘live’ music was still the preferred form of youth entertainment, with much emphasis on ‘Love and Peace’. The music scene in Scarborough was vibrant and largely benign.

But there was a darker side.

The ‘hip’ place to hang out for the musicians of the Yorkshire coast music scene was the coffee-bar in the Scarborough Bowling Alley, where girl fans of the local bands where much in evidence.

Conspicuous, in that setting, was the presence of a small group of older guys – the self-professed ‘Oldest Swinger in Town’, ‘Ron G’ and a very camp booking-agent called ‘Peter P’. ‘Jimmy C’ used to swing by. Another regular was Jimmy Savile. The word was that they were talent-scouting.

Some contemporary witnesses are quick to assert that they never saw or heard anything to cause them alarm. But one prominent local recalls being propositioned, by a member of Adam Faith’s management entourage, to attend ‘The Club’ – a strictly private group of older men of questionable tastes. Faith was good friends with local ‘big-shot’ and reputedly predatory homosexual Peter Jaconelli. Hearing that Jaconelli would be present, our informant declined the proposition.

This reference to ‘The Club’ is of special interest, because it ties in with stories amounting to common knowledge amongst the older generation in Whitby, that a local resident (who also owned a club in Scarborough) regularly entertained members of ‘The Club’, including Savile and the aforementioned Jaconelli, in a purpose-built room (fitted out by a local craftsman known to Real Whitby) in his Whitby home.

This room (or ‘chamber’, as it reportedly was known) was equipped with a whipping-post, replete with restraining-shackles and other S&M paraphernalia. Two independent witnesses have come forward who claim to have visited this ‘chamber’ in its heyday, when sex and drugs sessions are alleged to have taken place with some regularity – apparently without being inconvenienced by the attentions of the local Police.

New allegations have now emerged (through postings on the Scarborough News web-site) that one of the alleged members of ‘The Club’ (by then the Mayor of Scarborough, Councillor Peter Jaconelli) was convicted (in York, Bournemouth and Northern Ireland) of offences against minors – but word of these convictions conveniently escaped mention in the Scarborough and Whitby press.

Dennis Lemon, Saville’s former bodyguard when he worked in a club in Leeds, has alleged that Savile had also been in Court in connection with molesting a minor. If this is so, surely the information was available to the North Yorkshire Police (NYP) through the Criminal Records Office.

Thus, a large volume of circumstantial intelligence must surely have been available to North Yorkshire Police.

Unsurprisingly, we have had no response at all from NYP to the earlier Real Whitby article; although they were offered the opportunity to comment. They have not done so and are apparently still relying on an earlier statement:

“When the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile were publicised, we carried out extensive searches of force records which did not reveal a local connection.”

Despite the obvious connection of prominent local figures, NYP are effectively denying any responsibility for having failed to detect and arrest Savile or any of the other members of ‘The Club’.

One wonders where NYP stand on claims in Savile’s 1974 autobiography ‘As It Happens’ that a Yorkshire Council provided him with six girls as ‘payment’ for his guest appearance at a Mayoral Ball.

In the now famous Louis Theroux documentary, Savile boasted about tying people up in his club and keeping them “down in the boiler room” until 02.00am when he was ready for them. He goes on to state that they would plead to get out but he (Savile) was judge, jury and executioner. Clearly a very sinister statement – particularly as Savile did not know that he was being filmed at the time, as Theroux himself was not present; thus, Savile was not maintaining a public façade.

A boiler-room would be a suitable location for secret confinement and there may therefore have been no need to tie up young people held there as prisoners. So would a ‘chamber’. And Savile apparently did use ropes and/or other methods of restraint on his victims, though he did not divulge precisely what he did to his young prisoners.

Given his background (he was physically fit, a former miner, professional wrestler and marathon-runner), it may have been acts of violence, or sexual abuse, or some sort of sado-masochistic bondage practice. It certainly may well have been criminal; we simply do not know. But it is clear that tying people up and abusing them was an activity in which he himself claimed to have frequently indulged.

So what was it that he and the other members of ‘The Club’ were doing in that ‘chamber’ in Whitby – with its whipping-post and shackles?

And why did the Whitby Police disregard the rumours rife in the town?

Savile’s associates – ice-cream king Peter Jaconelli and arcade-operator Jimmy Corrigan – loomed large on the Scarborough club scene and even larger along the seafront, where young people traditionally congregate. Talking to traders and shop-owners in the harbour area, it is clear that it was widely-acknowledged that the Savile set – ‘The Club’ – exercised a preference for very young people of both genders.

Did NYP really have no dialogue with local traders? Did they not evaluate local rumour and intelligence? Did they not liaise with Scotland Yard in respect of sex crimes and child-abuse up and down the country?

It is noteworthy, too, that there have been other investigations into sex offences involving young people in Scarborough. So why have we heard nothing of any NYP investigation into the Savile set?

And why has an FOIA request to North Yorkshire County Council Social Services, asking for the number and dates of past allegations against Savile, been refused on the grounds that “the large amount of work involved would bring the cost of answering the request over the amount to which we are legally required to respond”. Our information is that a further FOIA request has since been submitted, constraining the request to reports from just three ‘sample’ institutions – Raincliffe School, Throxenby Hall and the day-and-boarding-school Scarborough College.

Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) was reportedly with NYP for thirty years, mostly in Scarborough, finishing as acting head of the Scarborough Police. Following retirement, he was elected to Scarborough Borough Council in 2003.

Councillor Tom FOX has now twice been asked to confirm (or deny) prior knowledge or awareness – either as a Police Officer or as a Councillor – of allegations against Savile. No response.

And yet Councillor FOX has assured the public, in the Scarborough News report of his belated proposal that Savile should be stripped of his honorary Freedom of the Borough of Scarborough title (conferred in November 2005), that:

“if the council had been aware of such revelations at the time of Sir Jimmy Savile’s nomination for ‘Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Scarborough’ the council would have refused it”.

Are we to conclude, from that pointedly conditional form of words – “if the Council had been aware” – (as distinct, say, from “Councillors were unaware”), that the Council did not know – but Councillor Tom FOX did? It would appear that he is not intent upon clarifying his intention.

Last week, Councillor Tom FOX was offered the opportunity, ahead of the publication of this article, to submit a comment for inclusion in this article. No response.

Now The Daily Mail has published allegations of Savile having held regular meetings with Police Officers and ‘gangsters’, and The Daily Mirror has reported that Scarborough Police have failed to search Savile’s Scarborough apartment.

Questions are being asked at the highest levels of Government. Anti-corruption champion Lord Maginnis of Drumglass has referred to the North Yorkshire Police as “thatparticularly dubious Constabulary that merits careful investigation”.

Has there been a Police/Council COVER-UP over Jimmy Savile – right here in the Borough of Scarborough?

Is it not time for transparency? Time for someone to make a definitive statement? A statement for which he (or she) will stand ready and willing to accept full accountability?Is that not the rôle of the Leader of the Council – Councillor Tom FOX?

“For too long those in power made decisions behind closed doors, released information behind a veil of jargon and denied people the power to hold them to account. This coalition is driving a wrecking ball through that culture – and it’s called transparency.” – [David Cameron – Sept. 2010]

12 Comments

I was a teenager in the 60s and naturally, was a fan of the ‘pop’ music scene, at the time. I always thought that Savile was pretty weird, and his very limited catch phrases – ‘now then, now then’ ‘how’s about that then, guys and gals?’As it ‘appens” etc. were totally unamusing and not entertaining in any way.

He also seemed a lot older than the rest of the DJs at the time and his mode of dress, string vests, flashy jewelry, jewelry, tartan hair, just didn’t seem to gel with me. He was definitely very odd.
Later, I began to hear the stories about his sexual predilections and I must say I didn’t take them very seriously. I imagined that if there were any foundation to the stories which circulated freely, in the pubs and clubs of S.Yorks. which I frequented, then the police would have investigated them and him. As it happens, they didn’t. The question now is why not, why not?
Now then, now then, I am amazed that all of the blame seems to be being heaped on the BBC. As it ‘appens, Saville was a popular ‘star’ who had wide appeal, he will have made a lot of people, a lot of money and he will not be the only employee of the BBC to have taken advantage of the opportunities for access to young people, for sex, afforded by shows such as ‘TOP of the POPS’ and ‘Jim’ll Fix It’.
The BBC had a responsibility to supervise his behaviour,to an extent,certainly, but the police are to blame for allowing his perverted career to continue for so long.
Savile was a monster and will have worked with many other like minded people, it is inconceivable that the police were unaware of his activities and those of his associates. Jewelry, jewelry, jingle, jangle, now then, now then, did Jim fix it for you? As it ‘appens, I think that we should be told.

Excellent points Richard. I’m a little older than you, I think, and went off to the States in the late 60s but in the early 60s was a prominent teen ‘rebel’ around Scarborough. A group of us used to meet nearly every day in one of three places, the Cat’s Whisker coffee bar at the bottom of Albemarle Crescent, the Tisane Coffee shop, just opposite ‘the Cat’s’, in Westborough, and the Wimpy Bar diagonally opposite the railway station. The same kids used to revolve around the 3 places.

Savile never used to join us in either the Cat’s or Tisane, both of which were quite small, particularly the former, but about once a fortnight, if we happened to be in the Wimpy he would join us. He was not, of course, a big star at the time, just making his name but he used to sit himself down and start pontificating. I couldn’t stand him because I was very politically aware even at that time and his mantra of ‘Never do anything for nothing’ rather stuck in my throat.

He told us about once being asked to do something for charity and asking the guy who asked him how many cigars there were in the box on his desk. He was very proud of the fact that, on being told that there were X cigars (I can’t, honestly, remember the number except that it was low) he said he would do the charity job for the cigars. ‘Never do owt for nowt, and if tha does, do it for tha self, guys and gals’, was his lesson. He must have been in his late 30s or maybe early 40s at this point and I must admit he never bothered me (apart from politically) possibly because I was a rather ugly male teenager whose feminine side had left for another guy. But a few of our girl friends (in the true sense), and one of the lads (certainly the best looking of the group) expressed concern that he was over friendly, inviting them to go to ‘adult’ parties. As I said, he was probably in late 30s and we were mid teens and nobody had any alarms ringing. If we had any worries it was doubtful that anybody of any consequence would have listened at that time.

But, just to reinforce what you are saying, none of us liked the man or felt comfortable in his presence. But we couldn’t express our concerns to anybody, he was an up and coming ‘star’.

I used to do nightclubs with my two elder brothers, saville wa sp[laying crap records and my brothers freind wa shoting at him over it, one of the bouncers said to us, look hes paid to play certain records give it time and there may be something you like later on, my brothers freind called “rubbish ” and the bouncers carried him off, we thought they would turf him outside, but he rolled up at 2 in the morning covered in brusies and said the bouncers tied him up for savile to beat him, he had heavy gold rings which lsft terrible injuries, savile then said leave him to me lads, bent him over a log pile and screwed his backside, he was later diagnosed with gonorrhea.

Kevin, I am appalled by your very graphic account of further depravity on the part of JS, and very sorry to hear of your friend’s unimaginably dreadful experience. My co-writer Tim Hicks has established a line of communication with Operation Yewtree. I would urge you to contact Tim (from 6:00pm tomorrow, Thursday 8th November 2012), at the following email address:

How about the arranged murder of BBC presenter Jill Dando – which effectively, was an assaniation? A colleague of hers was allegedly ‘molested’ by Saville and one wonders if she threatened to blow the whistle on him.

Given that Saville himself had threatened some of his victims with ‘punishment’ by the IRA, if they exposed him, I am not easily inclined to dismiss such a theory as being preposterous.

My father was a doctor in N Yorks from another town but he worked at Scarborough Hospital in his retirement because they were short of A&E doctors in those days. I can remember him being unusually scornful about Savile. He also thought NYPC and Scarborough Council were riddled with masons who he hated with a vengeance. Looking back I wonder if he had heard something from hospital staff about the man, but it might just be that Savile was a very obvious narcissist, and perhaps he knew that he was also a mason. I left the area many years ago and my parents are no longer living but I guess most of the establishment figures in the county still belong to that heinous sect of back scratchers